Cold in the Grave (1997)

Posted by Mrs Giggles on September 29, 2020 in 3 Oogies, Idiot Box Reviews, Series: Ghost Stories

Cold in the Grave (1997)

Main cast: Shea Whigham (Eric Duke), Gabrielle Harris, Emilie Jo Tisdale (the Woman in the Rain), and Rip Torn (Narrator)
Director: Joe Wiecha

Cold in the Grave is a return of Ghost Stories into more familiar “evil man gets his just desserts” territory. Eric “Ricky” Duke, a divorcé, is a refrigerator repairman that is eager to get his juices flowing again, if you know what I mean. He is a terrible flirt and obnoxious hands-y creep, however, and most women won’t give him any time of the day. One evening, he manages to convince a young lady waiting outside the bar, , to let him give her a ride. He tries to get rough with her, but she manages to run out of his truck…

… Only to then waste time standing right in front of his vehicle screaming for help, before running in a straight line on the road. Naturally, it’s very easy for him to run her down. Am I supposed to feel sorry for this lady? As it happens, Ricky has a fridge at the back of his truck, and he decides to put her inside before throwing the whole thing—with her still screaming inside—into a lake. It’s not his fault, though, as he wouldn’t have done this if his ex-wife hadn’t made him so bitter about women in general!

Needless to say, Ricky is soon haunted by the fact that, each time he opens a fridge, he will see the decomposing body of the girl moaning to be let out of the fridge.

This episode looks like a decent chiller at first, and I like how Ricky gets what is coming to him in the end. The pacing is fine, and so what if everyone in this episode seemed determined to do the dumbest things possible—that’s typical, I guess, of such a show.

However, when I think a little bit more about the episode in order to write this review, things fall apart quickly. There are so many dumb things ingrained in the story itself that can be quite distracting. For example, why is that lady staying up so late in the pub when she had an important exam to sit for the next morning? Why does Ricky have what seems like a dozen fridges in his apartment, as it’s not like he had so much food stuffed in them? If the ghost could take a more proactive revenge against Ricky, as seen towards the end of the episode, why does she waste time moaning at Ricky from refrigerators? What is she trying to do anyway, aside from providing silly jump scares for the audience? How come no one asks what happened to the fridge at the back of Ricky’s truck? If Ricky is such a “surgeon-general” with refrigerators, why isn’t he more financially successful? It’s not like his expertise is common.

I can go on and on, really. In the end, this is an alright episode, so long as one doesn’t think too hard about what one is seeing on the screen.

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